Impact of the Surface Properties of Cellulose Nanocrystals on the Crystallization Kinetics of Poly(Butylene Succinate)

The hydrophilicity of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is a major challenge for their processing with hydrophobic polymers and matrices. As a result, many surface modifications have been proposed to hydrophobize CNCs. The authors showed in an earlier study that grafting alcohols of different chain lengths onto the surface of CNCs using toluene diisocyanate (TDI) as a linker can systematically hydrophobize CNCs to a water contact angle of up to 120°...